Former governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, shared his thoughts on the state of the nation just as he clocks 79 years today. The Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland said “there’s nothing to celebrate” as he delved into the varying challenges facing the country; from insecurity to economic instability and proffered solutions on the way forward.
He was frank and bold. He spoke with FEMI ADEOTI and OLUSEYE OJO.
Nigeria will celebrate her 63rd independence anniversary on October 1. Does it worth celebrating?
Our generation is unique. In the generation pre-independence and post-indepedence, we served our parents. They were having many children then to have enough hands to work in their farms. We served our parents until they started looking for people to work in their farms. In our own generation, we were not selfish. We took care of our parents.
But today, the story is not the same. It is saddening somehow. But how we came to where we are today, I don’t know. Maybe it is our fault. The suffering I had when I was growing, I don’t want my children to have it.
In those days, those of us that our parents did not have cars, we were looking forward to when we might have car. Of course, the values have changed also. In those days, you would ask a child, what do you want to be? The child would look up to become a professional.
At that time, nobody would say he wanted to become a singer. This is why I said values have changed. Footballing was not a professional thing then. It was just to exercise, especially in this part of the world. But today, if you ask a child, “what do you want to become?” He can say I want to become a footballer. He wants to become a singer. He wants to become a rapper.
When you look at it, you cannot say this part of the world has changed for the better. Because those of us who use to travel know that the respect they have for your country is the respect they will have for you. They will look at your passport and it is your passport that will determine how they are going to treat you, whether with respect or disdain.
Some of us actually laboured for a good Nigeria. But we didn’t succeed for one reason or the other, to put Nigeria where it should be.
What do you think is responsible for not succeeding?
Most of the values of Nigerians are different from our own. Most Nigerians are looking after themselves, more than looking after common interest. I always tell people that, we like privileges than responsibilities.
Today, the advent of the media, whether social or the established ones, changes a lot of things. In some cases, the more noise you can make, the more you are appreciated than working silently. So, it is one of those things that we’ve suffered.
As far as I am concerned, I don’t think our generation succeeded. We did not put our country, where it should be.
There may be other factors, maybe we have many tribes, or many people in one country, whose views are totally different. Where you are fighting for something, they are fighting for something else.
Is it only the leadership that is responsible for this?
Those of us who saw the civilian regime before 1966 knew that we were doing well. We had hope. We knew where we were going. We knew the values we were supposed to pursue.
If you look at the crop of leadership at that time, they were less selfish. We can’t say they were selfless. But they were less selfish. I said this because they were people, who saw the values and they were modelling on what they saw. Many of them were trained in England or America.
They included Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ladoke Akintola, Chief Rotimi Williams and so on. They saw the values and they tried to instill those values on us. They knew that in this part of the country (South West), education was key and they harped on it. I cannot even say whether it’s the advent of the military that changed our values.
Some people who participated in the First Republic, for example, are still participating in this Fourth Republic, (cuts in)
Yes, Chief Bola Ige participated in 1999. It is true. Presently, we are grappling to catch up to where we were. But under who did Bola Ige serve in 1999?
When we were young, brilliant students wouldn’t go to the Army. Yes, you would not voluntarily choose to go into the Army. The Army personnel were not trained to be public administrators. They were not trained to be liberal in approach. They were not trained to be democratic, because their opinions would always be right, even if you give them advice.
In those days, the competition was very lively. The West was proud to say, “we are good exporters or cocoa.” The East would say, “it is true that you have cocoa, we also have palm oil, don’t forget.” The North had cotton and groundnuts.
The Mid-West that was created then, that was where politics started also. Mid-West was created in 1962, which we can say is a tyranny of the majority. It was a tyranny of the majority because Awolowo was asking for Calabar-Ogoja Rivers (COR), and Middle-Belt. But nobody listened to him because he was not in power. People that were in power, after the 1960 independence, decided that it was good to create Mid-West, to curb the West.
I was a student in Ibadan Boys High School. Awolowo lived in our compound at Oke Bola, Ibadan. So, we saw everything that happened at the time – the quarrel between Akintola and Awolowo. We saw it all.
When you look at it, ask yourself, could it be the advent of military? And what comes to your mind at times is Alozie Ogbugbuaja. Could he have been right? He was the public relations officer of the police in those days. He said what the military know about is to go to beer parlours and restaurants for drinks and pepper soup, and look for women. I was not in the Army, I don’t know if that is possible. I did not know what they were doing.
The countries with us at that time, like Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, even Saudi Arabia, are now more respected than us. Take Malaysian passport to England and take your Nigerian passport there, you will know what you will suffer.
They are still seeing everybody through the narrow eyes of their perception: “Oh, Nigerians are 419. Nigerians are drug pushers”, whereas it is not true. If a minority is doing something, you cannot generalise that to everybody. You are supposed to have an opening.
So, those countries are profiling us?
They put you in a straight-jacket to say this is what it is likely to be. In that case, they will grill you.
After the 1979 handover, we were still breathing some fresh air, until the time Buhari took over in 1983 (December 31). Maybe, that was where the problem actually started.
The succeeding military government introduced Structral Adjustment Programme (SAP). By then, hardwork was no more the in-thing. The people making money were those with portfolios. You would carry your briefcase. They were briefcase contractors. They took jobs and the intention was to sell it, not to do it. They would collect their own share. Whether the man who did the work made profits or not, or whether he did the work or not was not their problem.
When you look at it, you will ask, where did we get it wrong? Economy was not bad as this. Corruption was not as bad as this. Now, can a teacher send his children to university on his legitimate earnings? So, people have to find a way of surviving.
I think it was (General Yakubu) Gowon who gave us Udoji Commission because he did not want to go in 1976. But Udoji created more problems for us.
Let’s come back to your immediate constituency now. When did you become Mogaji and how did you enter the Olubadan Ruling Line?
I became Mogaji in 1993. I didn’t choose the line, because both lines lead to the same place, which is the Olubadan. I just know that by the grace of God one day, I will become the Olubadan. When I was coming, I didn’t choose any line. Any line could have been faster but I find myself in the Olubadan.
I was the Jagun Olubadan. My bossom friend was Jagun Balogun the same day. We were just put in the line. He’s the Osi Balogun now. You can’t say this is the line you want to go, it depends on circumstances. The people in the line may die and you’d be drafted into the line. Until you become the Olubadan, as far as I’m concerned, you’re still in the same rank.
What has been your experience since then?
Ibadan system is a bit difficult to assess because nothing is expected of you until you become a high chief. Go and be doing your work and from time to time, you will be moving and if you’re needed, you can be called to render a service. But once you become a high chief from the position of Ekaarun, you now have responsibilities.
The frequency with which the Olubadan needs you becomes more, depending on if you are suitable for the job on ground.
When I was the Ekaarun, in my own case for instance, I was acting for Olubadan in the Traditional Council of Lagelu Local Government. When I became the Ekeerin, I had to move to Oluyole Local Government. After that, I moved to Ibadan North West. Then, Ibadan South West before I landed at Ibadan South East as the Otun Olubadan.
I see that period as period of tutelage. It gives one, more time to participate in more activities and you are learning in the process, that which ordinarily you may not have learnt. It is a period of learning. I can say that Ibadan system is better than most places where they come out to say it is someone the Ifa has chosen. Of course, we know that Ifa doesn’t choose people anymore. It is money that speaks now.
What are the ups and downs in the journey?
It is a straightforward journey because once you put your hand on the ladder, it is just to start climbing. You won’t overtake anybody and nobody will overtake you. It is smooth.
The only thing is that we have different people with different opinions from yours. In some cases, some people don’t understand that there are other things that are associated with positions like that. There are certain things that are set up by the state law and others by tradition. Climbing the ladder is a tradition, but the traditional council was set up by the state law.
We also have the chiefs law, which tries to regulate what a chief can do and not do. Ibadan is unique. It is not hereditary. Everybody in Ibadan is a potential Olubadan, which is different from other places with ruling houses. The people that set up the chief laws are geniuses because they find a way to incorporate various systems into the law. I think the people are good people.
What kind of reforms will you propose in the Ibadan chieftaincy system?
If a person becomes Mogaji and he wants to reduce the year in front of him. Of course, it is only if people before him die that he can move. If they do not die, he can’t move. It is either we change the system totally or it remains like that. I don’t think changing the system is right because the people who created Ibadan did not want it that way.
They came from various places to settle down in Ibadan. When Aliwo came, he could have settled in Lagun and proclaim himself as oba. Instead, he went to Ibadan, he was given a fort to hold, so that if the enemies were coming from that direction, he would be able to confront them before others would join him. Their system was unique like a collegiate rulership, in which you have to show that you’re strong before you become the ruler and you are first among equals.
How many people who were Jagun became the Olubadan? Perhaps, one in 200. That shows God determines everything.
Before the last Olubadan became Olubadan, there were three people in front of him in their line, God removed them for him. The last one was High Chief Omiyale. High Chiefs Omowale Kuye and Omiyale died a week apart. You can understand that it is God that determines who becomes the Olubadan, unless you don’t believe in Him.
Apart from the Iyalode of Ibadan who is a member of Olubadan Advisory Council, the main 11 members of the council, are Olubadan’s representatives in the 11 local governments in Ibadan. What if the local governments are increased?
When we get to the river, we will cross it. The traditional council law came in 1999. This arrangement has been existing for a long time. You can’t say the number of local governments was tailored towards the tradition council law.
In those days, Seriki was also a member of Olubadan-in-Council. Iyalode and Seriki were also members. Apparently, if you check, there were 13 members. But the line is going into extinction because there are no chiefs in the line currently. There is no Seriki again. The last one was Chief Adisa Akinloye.
For reasons best known to the Olubadan and his council at that time, they said they weren’t going to pick another Seriki. And I think it is because they realised that they wanted to make it into the third line and that’s not the intention. They were almost making it so, as they had, Seriki, Otun Seriki and the likes. Some of them who thought it unnecessary to maintain the line moved into the two existing lines like Chief Lateef Oyelade. He went back to start again from one of the main lines.
How would you describe your role in the Obaship matter in Ibadan and the challenges as well as how it can be resolved?
What’s there? You’re mixing the role created by the tradition and the role created by government. Government created the traditional council. There’s a law that is guiding how every town will be ruled. We call it declaration. Declaration was made by the people, which is the tradition. The other ones – house of chiefs, chiefs law, traditional council law, were all made by government.
What they believed that time. Just like the House of Chiefs, there was crisis of who was going to be the chairman between the late Alaafin (Oba Lamidi Adeyemi) and the late Ooni (Oba Okunade Sijuwade). Ooni was the permanent chairman and the Alaafin took him to court. When the Ooni left after Osun State was created from the old Oyo State and Alaafin became the chairman, the others were challenging him also.
That’s how it is. But it was created by government. People also at times want to equate history with today’s tradition. They will say Alaafin must be the chairman because he’s an Oduduwa son. Is Alaafin the only Oduduwa son in Oyo State today? But if we want to do that, we can call the Oduduwa sons and say this is your own area.
The House of Chiefs wasn’t created by the Oduduwa sons but by the government and the government has a way of saying this is the way it will go.
Those things that are traditional, I don’t think government should force it so much. All these first class or second class kings are government creation and it depends on what government feels at that time or what advice the government got that time, or how open-minded the person in charge is.
Do you think that “government creation” is responsible for the former Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent treatment of some traditional rulers in Oyo State?
I don’t think it is. I know Obasanjo very well. I think Obasanjo just wanted to be in the news. He likes to create controversies so he could be in the news. He knows that the media like controversies.
I watched the programme on the television, from the beginning to the end. When the governor was going to the podium, everybody there stood up. In fact, the governor was the one who asked everyone to sit down when he was about to start his remarks. He wouldn’t have said they should sit down if they weren’t standing. I think Baba had something to show. May be, he wanted everybody to know that he was there.
Nobody is talking about what they went to commission – the LAUTECH external campus. Nobody talked about the reconstructed Oyo-Iseyin Road he (Obasanjo) was invited to commission. Everybody is only talking that Obasanjo disgraced the Obas. That’s what Baba wanted and it was uncalled for because the kings stood up.
Well, if I were to be there, I won’t stand up. I would have told him that I won’t stand up. In fact, I will just say he wasn’t talking to me as I am not an Oba. He was talking to the Obas. Even when he was going to the podium, they stood up. You know Obasanjo is a bully, he likes to bully people.
Did he ever do such thing to you during your tenure as governor in Oyo State?
He (Obasanjo) tried it but he failed. He engineered my impeachment. It wasn’t (Chief) Lamidi Adedibu. What happened was that he was fighting for third term and I took him as my friend. I didn’t know him when he was Head of State. But after he became the president, I used to visit him. When I became the governor, I noticed he was fighting for third term. I knew it was unconstitutional.
As a friend I went to him and asked him about it. I asked him if it was true and he said no. So, I thank God and he said why. I told him that if it were to be true I would have told him that the two terms he spent, he didn’t merit it and God has been kind to him. He was in prison before he came out to be president in the civilian regime. He must have money to contest. He didn’t have the money. People came to call him to become president.
Chief Sunday Michael Afolabi was part of the people who went to call him. I said a criterium for a person who wants to be president in a civilian regime is that you must have tons and tons of your own money. You must be a politician too and he wasn’t one at that time, they came to call him.
I said, “Baba (Obasanjo), charity also begins at home. You can’t win a councilor’s seat in your ward.” He thanked me and I came back to Ibadan. Gbenga Daniel (former governor of Ogun State) called me and asked me if I was in Ota that day and if I discussed with Baba the issue of third term.
I answered in affirmative. He told me I have wounded Baba that he threatened to make me useless. It wasn’t an issue that should be discussed on phone. So, we decided to meet in Abuja. I went to Abuja to get the full gist from Gbenga Daniel. He asked me to go apologise to Baba.
I went to him (Obasanjo). As soon as he saw me, he said, “I’m determined to wreck you.” He stood and left. Chief Fasawe was there, trying to persuade him not to do such. I also replied him that he could only wreck me if God permitted him. That’s how the whole thing started.
It wasn’t Adedibu or (Alao) Akala (Ladoja’s Deputy who later succeeded him). It was Obasanjo. I also gave it back to him after we left office when he invited us. He wanted to do a coronation of some PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) stakeholders that time. Tajudeen Oladipo, who was the South West chairman of PDP told baba that I must be there. He came to me and I told him that if Baba needed any information, he should call me.
We scheduled a meeting at Premier Hotel, Ibadan. But there wasn’t any talk it was all fight again. He insisted that I must escort him to Government House. He said he couldn’t settle the problem of Oyo State PDP in the Government House as it was between Ladoja and Akala. He invited us to his house. Olagunsoye Oyinlola was there, Taju was there.
He failed in my impeachment saga. I came back to the office as governor when he was still the president and there was nothing he could do about it. After that, he came here (Ladoja’s house) to have lunch.
As he said (in Iseyin), people respect two things – position and age. There’s no position to respect now because he is former but he has age on his side. And I still give him the respect of age. But the Obasanjo I know is a bully. He was just trying to bully the Obas.
Looking at the situation of the country, what do you think is wrong with us?
This is not Nigeria of our dream. We got it wrong from the time the military took over and got to the time that the civilian took over. Buhari thought everybody is a soldier. I’m sure that’s what led to the coup that brought Ibrahim Babangida, who brought in SAP.
When we were young, naira was strong against the dollar. How did we come to where we are? Then, one million naira was US$1.6million. But today, you know what we have. Can you see it is quite incomparable? I bought a car when I started working in Total Nigeria Plc and I was earning £125 a month. I was comfortable. When you look at it, it was sufficient then.
The minimum wage today is N30,000. It can’t buy a bag of rice and that’s for a family of four. That salary is not even enough for transport to and from work. Nobody is rich today really.
There were were many textile companies in Lagos. There were a lot of people working there so much that they were always doing shifts. But now, all of these had closed down because we don’t have foresight in this country. A lot of people were affected.
We had groundnut oil mills but they are not here anymore. May be, if we had good economic policies, those factories wouldn’t have closed down. When you look at it, I’m very sad about these things.
Let’s talk about the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) in view of the crisises in Niger, Mali and others.
Is there ECOWAS? Do they exist? The problem we have is that we are always trying to mimick developed countries. We want to mimick European Union (EU). But EU started with European Common Market (ECM), that’s where they started from. We want to do ECOWAS but we don’t want to submit some of our sovereignty to the group.
The fundamental thing about ECOWAS is free movement of people andgoods. Nigeria can be said to be the leader, at least in terms of people and goods, may be, 50 per cent. So, when there’s supposed to be free movement, why would you close your borders? You even closed your borders before pandemic. That’s the issue with ECOWAS. Does it exist when your borders are closed?
As far as I’m concerned, ECOWAS doesn’t exist. The only interpretation people are giving the intervention (in Niger Republic) is that our government is just playing to the tune of the Western countries. I’m telling you, if ECOWAS tries to strike and throw a bomb, France may throw 10 bombs and say it is ECOWAS. They’re just looking for a way to come in. That is why they are encouraging ECOWAS military intervention.
But really, are they (Niger Republic) being treated fairly with how France was buying their uranium? Thirty per cent of France’s electricity is based on Niger’s uranium and Niger doesn’t have even a small plant to power their own electricity.
It is a dilemma of someone who has everything but doesn’t have anything. Just like Nigeria. We are the largest oil producing state in Africa, but no functional refinery to refine the oil.
You see now that there are many things that are making me sad. The reason I can’t celebrate my birthday in the midst of all these challenges. Where are all our companies? How do we create jobs? In those days, we had cocoa industry thriving, textile companies and the likes. But they all folded up. Even in Ibadan, we had a lot of them, but not anymore. By the time you’re buying diesel to power your plants, how do you sustain that?
In Nigeria, you’re your own electricity board. Many times the grid collapsed when it is not a house or a bridge. We made a mistake of not putting the infrastructure when we had surplus. Now, it is complicated. We are only praying that the new government would be able to put things in place.
Almost all governors celebrated 100 days in office. What is your take on this?
We did it in Oyo State too. But the governor here, has something to show. That was when Obasanjo came to commission the Oyo-Iseyin Road and other projects.
Something to show in the midst of mass suffering?
Oyo State cannot be different. People are talking about palliative but what palliative? The President, though said the subsidy removal thing wasn’t in his inaugural speech, he just summoned courage to proclaim the removal. Though it may be good, if he had sat down with his advisers, he could have gotten a better scope of the problem.
Yes, there was subsidy removal in your old plan but then do you know that there’s still subsidy now?
How?
The oil marketers should have been selling at the rate of N750 or N800. At that time, diesel was N600 or so. Now, diesel is N900, they follow one another. It means that if we are still buying it at the rate of N600 per litre, someone is paying for the rest.
Was there any subsidy originally?
We can look at it from two angles. The first angle is opportunity cost. If it is your crude oil and you only count the cost of bringing it out, you are not looking at the market value of crude oil, then we would have said there’s no subsidy.
But if you look at the market value of the crude oil you’re bringing out, let’s even say you take it out of the country to refine, which started in 1976, you may have to count the cost that applies.
But don’t assume that if our refineries start working, fuel will go back to N300? No, no, it won’t.
Why?
They won’t sell fuel at nothing to you. The problem here is that we have the cost of crude and the devaluation of the naira. Even, if the cost of crude is stable and unchanged but the naira keeps going down, of course it will be costing more in naira for the same amount of dollar because petroleum is denominated in dollars and not in naira.
They said a barrel is $94 now. Everybody in the world is shouting, maybe not in China and Russia. But Europe too is shouting. There are crises and the cause is the Ukraine-Russia war. I don’t think that the war will end soon. That’s another thing for Nigeria.
Europe said they are not buying crude from Russia again, that’s one of the things that made the price to go up. They are not buying gas again. Some people even bombed their pipelines. Europe is looking for alternative sources and Nigeria is one of them.
Already, a pipeline is being laid from Nigeria through Niger Republic take our gas to Algeria. There is already pipeline from Algeria to Europe. They will join that one with it. We have a lot of things on ground. If the price isn’t more than what we have now, someone is paying. If not, it should have been around N800 or so. All the excuses are just unwarranted. They just like to give excuses. If the price of crude is stable, our naira is devalued.
The CFA hasn’t. Benin Republic won’t be feeling the increment in price of things as we are feeling here. The CFA is linked to Euro and 100 CFA is equal to one French franc and French franc is linked to Euro. It is what happens to Euro that will happen to CFA. To an average person in Benin, he doesn’t see that price that you’re seeing.
That’s why I said we have started subsidising again. If the President has exercised some patience to understand the issue of subsidy at that time to know the best way to go about it. He wouldn’t have floated the naira at the same time he removed subsidy.
Imagine, we spend a lot of money on nothing. We don’t make paper. We don’t make ink for the printing. But we are spending good money to print money and still incurring costs that the people who make paper and ink are not incuring. If someone gives you a piece of $100 note, you will give him a minimum of 90 pieces of 1000 naira notes. That’s why when they said the government was thinking of making new naira that will make present N100 become one naira. I think it was reasonable to make a new naira. What do you buy with N5, N10, and N20 today?
Even N50, almost every goods’ price now is N100 upward. We have problem. I don’t envy the President, I pity him because Lagos is not Nigeria. I always tell people that Lagos is on auto pilot. When a plane gets to certain point, the pilot puts it on auto pilot and relaxes. That’s how Lagos is because there are needs and people have the capacity to provide for those needs. The economy is driving Lagos, not government. Government is just to regulate things.
Don’t you think the government is too large?
There are lots of parastatals, regulatory bodies, why can’t they put them together? The cost of governance is too much. That’s why the lawmakers don’t know that the people are suffering. People claim that Nigeria’s legislators are the best paid in the world, I tend to agree with that. Do we really need that fleet of cars they gave to the ministers? Do we need that fleet of cars they gave to the legislators. Shouldn’t we have made them patronise Nigerian vehicles and put our money there?
These are all the problems we have. The more you think about it the more you tend to ask yourself how did we get here? When we started, the naira was about $1.3, suddenly it just moved and a dollar became N3.8 and from there it has been on a downward slope.
How would you advise the government?
When you’re not in government, you cannot have accurate facts of how government takes decision. Well, I’m sure that the team the President is trying to build will be strong enough to face these problems. Under Muhammadu Buhari, it was a free-for-all government. Everybody was just doing what they liked.
That’s why somebody like Godwin Emefiele could come out and say he wanted to be president, as a a serving Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor. Where did he get all the money he used to buy the fleet of cars? A normal president would have sacked him on the spot. All other places, the central bank governors are generally technocrats not politicians.
Now, the issue keeps getting more complicated. The President said interest rate should go down, has it? No. Subsidy was removed but it has been reintroduced through the back door because the President knows it is not sustainable. By and large, we should start looking at our core values.
With the way you have spoken, it seems we don’t have a clear pragmatic solutions to the myraid of problems besetting the country. Witn the way things are going, will it not lead to Nigeria splitting to different smaller countries?
No, what can make Nigeria split is not the hardship. The hardship is a common thing, everybody is feeling it. What could have made Nigeria break fast was the issue of favouritism. People felt they were not defended by the government as it should be.
Now, people have started complaining that the Yoruba have taken over and I’m sure the President is also aware of that. But most of us feel that what is important is serving genuinely. Though some people don’t feel that way because Nigeria is a federation and everbody must be represented.
It is in the ministerial post that everybody must be represented, not in administration. Some of us believe that competent people should be put in place so all of us should enjoy. Those people the President believes are competent, he’s putting them in place.
It is now for them to deliver. If their delivery is good, maybe people will forget about the representation but the delivery. That’s also a recipe for Nigeria.
Can you talk about Sunday Igboho, we know he’s close to you?
What do you mean by close to me? He’s from Oyo State and I was their governor for many years. He lives in Ibadan and I’m a high chief of Ibadan and I’m accessible. Yes, he was close to me not because I was sending him on any errand but what he saw at that time was simple.
If somebody was kidnapped in Igangan, Oyo State, would go and meet Sarkin Fulani, you would him to release the man. That means the Sarkin Fulani knows the people kidnapping. And people believe that if anyone is kidnapped and you go to the police, you won’t get any answer.
He (Igboho) then went there to tell the Sarkin Fulani that he suspected him to be one of the kidnappers and said: “We don’t want you in this town again.” And gave him seven days ultimatum. He didn’t even go back to the place.
Sarkin Fulani was the one who left and burnt down his own hamlet. He was the one who burnt down the hamlet. It wasn’t Sunday Igboho. His people didn’t go there again. They went on the seventh day and were told that the Sarkin Fulani had gone. The Area Commander of Nigeria Police Force was with him. So, what offence did he commit?
Have you not read about houses being bulldozed because they were used as kidnappers’ hideouts? Did anybody arrest the governor? If someone is becoming dangerous in a town and the people decide that they don’t want such a person, what’s wrong there? I don’t see what he has done wrong.
I had opportunity to talk to some northern governors at that time. I told them that there was a time an emir in the North gave the Bororo ultimatum to leave his town and nobody arrested him. That’s one of the things that can lead to calling for break-up. Nepotism and favoritism can cause the secession of a country.
As far as I’m concerned, the President must look at his (Igboho’s) case and pardon him if they feel he has committed any offence. It is a question of rule of law. And if you notice since President Bola Tinubu has been sworn in, the incidence of herdsmen has gone down drastically in this part of the country. I don’t know about other places though.
I don’t know so much again because people don’t talk about herdsmen again. It is now about bandits and kidnappers. We don’t know which one is what?
